Line #31 Series/IkMikLoreland


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2c.png]]
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3	->''"Ik Mik Loreland; Loria, verloren land. Waar zal ik gaan zoeken, zeg me waar ik heen moet gaan."''[[note]]"I, Mik, and Loreland, lost country of Loria. Where will I go search, tell me where I need to go."[[/note]]
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5	''Ik Mik Loreland'' was an EdutainmentShow that ran for two seasons in 1994 in UsefulNotes/TheNetherlands. It was developed to be accompanying a reading method coined ''Veilig leren lezen'', which means "learning to read safely", and ended up traumatizing pretty much every Dutch child born between 1985 and 1995. This was especially due to the BigBad Karbonkel, who was NightmareFuel to most viewers, which were aged 5-7 at that time.
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7	The story starts in the fictional land of Loria. Everyone in Loria is obsessed with anything having to do with reading and writing, to the point where their entire lives revolve around it. In a cave nearby, there lives Karbonkel, an ill-tempered troll like creature who is illiterate, but desperately wants to learn reading and writing, so he can write a story about his species, the Karbonkels. One day, Mik, the protagonist, visits Karbonkel's cave and tries to teach him to read. But Karbonkel, impatient as he is, wants to instantly learn it. When Mik explains learning to read takes time, Karbonkel becomes very angry and uses his magic powers to turn the entire country of Loria illiterate out of spite, by removing all letters from the country. This turns Loria into the titular Loreland. To restore literacy in Loria, Mik sets out on a quest to reacquire all letters. Mik's journy brings her to strange lands, with equally strange creatures, who are either helpful, harmful or just weird. During her travels, Karbonkel follows her, trying to make her quest fail.
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9	WordOfGod says it [[http://www.vice.com/nl/read/er-komt-een-documentaire-die-uitlegt-waarom-alle-kinderen-nachtmerries-kregen-van-karbonkel-292 wasn't]] inspired by ''Series/TwinPeaks'' (Though the bad guy Karbonkel has several parallels with Killer BOB).
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11	The entire series can be viewed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ralklin5JCY&list=PLL3dILqxAMqgDnw5717rWhp09taSMmCpG Here]].
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14	!!''Ik Mik Loreland'' contains examples of:
15	* AbhorrentAdmirer: One of the characters gets one from episode 24 onwards, which goes hand in hand with CasanovaWannabe.
16	* AllTrollsAreDifferent: The troll-like Karbonkels are mostly illiterate, have the power to turn entire countries illiterate and are able to shapeshift into giant piranhas. If one does learn to read, he or she gains a more human like appearance.
17	* {{Animorphism}}: Karbonkel can shapeshift into a one-eyed green fish.
18	* AntiVillain: Karbonkel seems to be a Woobie Anti Villain. The reason why he turns Loria into the illiterate Loreland, is because he is frustrated about his inability to read and write.
19	* AudienceSurrogate: The protagonist of the story, Mik, serves as one.
20	* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: There is a place called Kratermaan which closely resembles the moon. Nobody has any problem breathing there, though.
21	* BigBad: Karbonkel is the main villain for season 1, [[spoiler:the Bovenbonkel]] for season 2.
22	* CatGirl: Mik comes across a Cat Woman living in the Mazeworld of Doolgaarde.
23	* ContinuityNod: Several times over the course of the show, mostly to refresh the memory of the viewer.
24	* {{Cyclops}}: Karbonkel has one eye permanently shut and turns into a one-eyed fish. [[spoiler: He gets better, though.]]
25	* DrivenByEnvy: Karbonkel's sole motivation for turning Loria into the illiterate Loreland, is because of his jealousy for their ability to read, while he himself is illiterate.
26	* EdutainmentShow: One of the best known examples for Dutch people growing up in the 90's.
27	* EldritchLocation: The show is full of these, Doolgaarde in particular as an infinite maze. Karbonkelland actually ends up being one of the most normal locations in the show.
28	* ForcedTransformation: Poes, a CatGirl living in the maze world of Doolgaarde, was changed into an ape before meeting Mik.
29	* FunctionalMagic: Karbonkel and all of his kin can do magic. Examples include turning entire countries illiterate and VoluntaryShapeshifting. Another manifestation of this ability is hacking into a computer. The attempt was unsuccessful, though.
30	* GenreBlindness: Mik has a serious blind spot whenever she finds herself in a situation reminiscent of a fairy tale. The Bovenbonkel really likes to make use of this.
31	* GenreSavvy: The second BigBad, the Bovenbonkel, has some of this. Despite being from a species unable to read, he has knowledge about several fairy tales and uses this knowledge against Mik. A good example is when he uses an enchanted spinning wheel to make Mik fall asleep for a hundred years, explicitly mentioning his inspiration from Sleeping Beauty.
32	* GottaCatchThemAll: Every single letter has to be re-acquired over the course of the first season.
33	* HandPuppet: Mik's best friend is a sock puppet called Sok, who stays behind on Kratermaan.
34	* IdiotBall: The second episode starts with one for the main character as she comes across [[MakeAWish a shooting star]]. She could have easily wished for all the letters and words to return. Instead, she simply wastes her wish to dry her clothes.
35	* {{Leitmotif}}:
36	** Karbonkel has a very distinct one consisting of a set of strings, followed by a bass guitar. Whenever anything educational comes up, it is indicated by a distinct series of bleeps.
37	** Poes has a rather somber one, to evoke feeling lost all the time wandering in Doolgaarde.
38	* LoadBearingBoss: [[spoiler:In the SeriesFinale, the tower with the Bovenbonkel in it collapses.]]
39	* TheMaze: Doolgaarde, a dark and endless maze nobody has ever escaped from.
40	* MisterSeahorse: A key point in episode 19 where a male peacock lays a magical egg.
41	* MobileMaze: Mik asks for a map to find her way out of Doolgaarde. It turns out there are literally hundreds of maps because the maze changes every day, and there is no way of telling if you have the right one.
42	* NeverLearnedToRead: The troll-like Karbonkel is the only inhabitant of Loria who cannot read. When Mik tries to teach him, he gets so angry that he curses it to [[SugarApocalypse become the illiterate country of Loreland]] and scatters the letters of the alphabet across different places.
43	* OpeningNarration: Only done during the first episode, though for exposition purposes.
44	* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: Averted. They may be small and occupy their time mostly with masonry and stoneworking, but they are more akin to a RockMonster in some aspects.
45	* PaperPeople: The main character speculates about the existence of these people in episode 14.
46	* ParentalBonus: You can find plenty Innuendo and Puns, sometimes to get some crap past the radar.
47	* PortalPool: Mik travels from Loreland to Kratermaan by jumping into the town well and emerging from a water-filled krater on the other side. It's sort of implied that Karbonkel used his magic to create this portal.
48	* QuicksandSucks: In Huiverhuizen, Mik almost gets trapped in quicksand when she ignores a warning sign, but Aap quickly drags her out.
49	* SugarApocalypse: Everyone in Loria becomes illiterate after Karbonkel transforms it into Loreland. All the colors are drained away from the previously vibrant town as well.
50	* SwampsAreEvil: Huiverhuizen ("Chillinghouse"), one of the lands visited by Mik, is a creepy swamp.
51	* TitleDrop: In episode 13.
52	* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Karbonkel can transform into [[{{Animorphism}} a green one-eyed fish]].
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54	* WorldOfHam: Almost every character in this series really hams it up. The ones who don't can be counted on one hand.

Context Series / IkMikLoreland